Every Little Sound is Ruby Robinson’s debut collection. The title embodies the inspiration behind the poems – “internal gain”: the “internal volume control which helps us amplify and focus on quiet sounds in times of threat, danger or intense concentration”. This concentrated mastery of attention is reflected in the poet’s lines, both in those which Read More
Harry Giles, brought up tri-lingually with Orcadian, Scots and “English”, sets out his stall in “Brave”, the opening poem of his first full collection, Tonguit, which was short-listed for the Edwin Morgan Poetry Award in 2015: Acause incomer will aywis be a clarty wird, acause this tongue A gabber wi will nivver be the real Read More
After reading this collection by Alice Oswald, it came as no surprise to learn that following her studies of Classics at Oxford, Oswald trained as a gardener. Plants, flowers, myths and legends are constant threads that run through her poems. She draws much of her inspiration from the River Dart and the folklore of the Read More
True, we will never be beyond our histories. And so I am the island. And so this is a warning. Wife opens with “Dangerous Things” ; a few pages later, the full-page prose poem “Dictionary” sets out a clear stall as to how that titular word might be explored, initially from a European perspective, then Read More
Death is an important subject in biology. After all, Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace independently arrived at the concept of natural selection by contemplating death. After reading Thomas Malthus’s notorious Essay on Population, they realised that, unchecked by death, the ability of living things to reproduce would quickly result in astronomical numbers of every Read More
“This little patch of ground was exactly that: common. And all the richer for it.” In a sense, this sentence summarises both the strengths and weaknesses of Common Ground. In particular, pragmatic people are likely to ask: “If it is so common, what warrants writing so extensively about it?” From a reductive perspective, one might Read More
One might think that if you are the Gorley Putt Professor of Poetry and Poetics at Cambridge University creative attempts might turn out to be overly academic. Or you could be Simon Jarvis and write Jerusalem Deleted, which is an epic poem – an unusual choice considering that most contemporary poetry tends to be published Read More
Our Poet Laureate – Carole Ann Duffy – is no stranger to supporting a good cause, so it was no surprise when she announced her Shore to Shore tour to celebrate and support both poetry and independent bookshops all around the UK – which she believes are “so often the cultural heartbeat of their local Read More
